Agit Kabayel Comes In from the Shadows for Zhang Eliminator

When an unbeaten fighter emerges, they can be talked up as being ‘avoided’ – hence the lack of low-key opponents on their CV, or tarred with the brush of padding out their record with wins against rivals that simply don’t have the skills or power to cause an upset.

With Agit Kabayel, we’ll finally find out which is which when he takes on Zhilei Zhang for the WBC’s interim heavyweight title on February 22.

Zhang has explosive power that has accounted for world-ranked fighters, so will Kabayel prove that he’s up to championship grade? Or will the reason for the lack of quality wins on his ledger be confirmed?

Never Beaten

It’s a fight that is tough to predict, given how little is known about the German at world level.

The bookmakers have Kabayel as the slight favourite in their odds, but you wonder if punters might be better served using betting bonuses sourced at sites like speltips.se/bettingsidor/bonusar. Whether a deposit bonus or a free bet, at least there’s a chance to mitigate risk in what on paper appears to be a ‘50/50’ encounter.

Kabayel has a perfect 25-0 record, with 17 of those victories coming by way of knockout. There’s not a great deal of recognised opponents on the docket, however, while a majority decision win over Derek Chisora in 2017 does little to whet the appetite.

He won the European heavyweight belt from Andriy Rudenko in March 2019, who in turn then lost a unanimous decision to Zhang eight months later.

But the highly-rated Arslanbek Makhmudov was swotted aside within four rounds by Kabayel in his penultimate outing, before Frank Sanchez – ranked fourth in the world by the IBF as confirmed at ibf-usba-boxing.com/ratings/ – was clinically defeated, with the German delivering a series of punishing body blows before completing the KO in round seven.

Agit Kabayel has earned himself a shot at one of the big Heavyweight names! Beat two of the division’s most avoided fighters back-to-back.@AntoC6 takes on Joe Cordina next! #RingOfFire

— Frank Warren (@FrankWarren) May 18, 2024

Zhang, however, is a different animal entirely…

Expect the Unexpected

The man known as ‘Big Bang’ has certainly exploded into life after a career fighting journeymen and the unranked.

Zhang came out on the wrong side of a points defeat to the classy Filip Hrgovic in August 2022 – the best opponent he had fought by some margin, but then travelled to England and demolished local hope Joe Joyce not once but twice in displays of awesome power punching.

Next up was Joseph Parker, who was knocked down twice by blistering Zhang combinations. The Kiwi, however, was the more skilful of the two on the night – the Chinese heavyweight only landing 40 of his power shots – and deserved the points decision that came his way.

In his last fight, Zhang defeated a former world champion in Deontay Wilder; albeit one that has taken arguably too much punishment over the past couple of years. However, you can only beat what’s put in front of you…and the 41-year-old did just that with a devastating right hand that flattened Wilder in the fifth.

NEVER SAY NEVER.

The underdog Zhilei Zhang gets it done pic.twitter.com/gV4rR6pElN

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) April 15, 2023

Perhaps Kabayel summed up the February fight best with his simple analysis at ringmagazine.com/en/news/agit-kabayel-can-t-wait-to-swap-fists-with-zhilei-zhang-he-has-more-power-maybe-i-have-better-skills: “He [Zhang] has more power maybe, I have better skills. We will test it.”

It’s such a contrast of styles that often delivers the most entertaining fights. And with the winner scoring a crack at WBC champion Oleksandr Usyk, there’s plenty on the line, too.